Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple is planning a small but potentially useful upgrade for Smart Genmoji in iOS 27. The idea is to make the feature easier to use by automatically suggesting custom emoji based on the photos in a user’s library and their typing history.
According to IT Home’s report, Genmoji first arrived as part of Apple Intelligence and officially launched in iOS 18.2. The basic workflow is simple: users type a short prompt, Apple’s image generation model interprets it, and the system creates a custom emoji that matches Apple’s native visual style. While the feature has been useful, the report notes that the results can still miss the mark at times.
Apple already expanded the tool in iOS 26 by adding more customization options and support for blending two emoji styles together. In iOS 27, the next step appears to be recommendation-driven generation rather than waiting for users to start from scratch each time.
Gurman says Apple plans to add a dedicated toggle inside the keyboard settings for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. The description for that option reportedly explains that Smart Genmoji can automatically generate suggestions by looking at photo library content and commonly used input phrases. In other words, Apple wants the system to surface more relevant emoji ideas on its own instead of making people manually prompt the feature every time.
If Apple gets the execution right, this could make Genmoji a lot more practical in day-to-day chats. The feature would be much more useful if the AI can understand context well enough to suggest something that actually fits the conversation, rather than throwing out random or low-value emoji concepts.
That said, the privacy angle is hard to ignore. A system that draws from personal photos and keyboard history to generate emoji suggestions will inevitably make some users uneasy. Apple is reportedly giving users a clear opt-out switch, so the feature can be disabled if people don’t want that level of personalization.
What remains unclear for now is whether the Genmoji experience in iOS 27 will continue to run entirely through on-device AI models. That detail could matter a lot for users who care about privacy just as much as convenience.
